A Father's Love
by Nature9000
Summary: While waiting for Tori's performance, David comes to a startling realization that leads into contemplation of his daughters. When he discovers that one is minutes away from flying into Spain in hopes of becoming a success there, he races to the airport in time to say the things that have been left unsaid for many years, but he fears it may be far too late to reach his daughter.


Father's Love

Disclaimer: Not an owner of victorious

A/N: Another oneshot where I'm working on description. I was given a challenge of something I've not yet done and told to write it in a oneshot. Here you are.

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-UNSEEN-

His brown overcoat hung on the hat rack as he waited on the pale yellow couch for his oldest daughter to get ready for her sister's performance at the school. He'd not seen her since he left for work yesterday, and Holly informed him that she'd been in her room getting dressed, so he was going to wait and take her so they could spend some time together.

It had been such a long time since David spent any quality time with his eldest daughter. His youngest had done much to be proud of and Trina hadn't always been involved in anything, so there were times over the years where his focus had been on his youngest. It never seemed to matter that much to anybody, but it did make him feel like he'd been selfish.

"Trina, come on!" His hand scratched at the brown curls on the back of his head, and his shoulders started to fall. "We're going to be late to your sister's show." When no response came, he listened for any noise that might be upstairs. The sound of dead silence struck a painful chord in his heart.

Did Trina not want to go to see her sister's performance?

David made his way up the stairs, listening to every creak that sounded out from his heavy foot hitting the step. When he made it to the top floor, Trina's eggshell white door stood at the end of the hall. The posters and decorations that had once adorned it were gone, leaving only tiny holes where thumbtacks had been.

"Trina?" He furrowed his brow and slowly opened the door. The blinds and curtains on the bedroom window were spread open, allowing the sun to enter and spill out on a silent room. The bed was made, the floor was clean, and the only thing left was a small slip of paper on the end table.

His heart began to crash as he examined the now empty closet and the paper on the table. The paper had a phone number and a small message Trina had scribbled, saying that she was finally moving out.

When he pulled his phone out, he saw a text from Holly that came as a response to one he had sent her. She was telling him if Trina wasn't going to get up, for him to just come to see Tori's performance without her.

This performance was something Tori was looking forward to for so long, there were a number of record producers that might be able to see something in her and hire her. David and Holly had to be there to support her.

His heartbeat sounded out in the house, echoing through the air. A heaviness descended upon his chest as his eyes turned down to the slip of paper in his right hand, then the phone in his left.

"I could call Trina after the performance. Find out where she's moving to." Why hadn't she told anybody she was leaving?

As he made his way into the car and set the key into the switch, his body grew numb. He turned his eyes to the paper and then slipped his fingers away from the keys without turning on the car.

The numbers on the phone burned into him, scorching his retinas and calling out to him. His stomach felt empty and his fingers like stone. As he looked to the empty passenger seat, his powerful hand moved up to cover a deep frown. "I should call first."

The phone's ring sounded off like a siren to him, each ring warning him of suspicious activity. After the fourth, a woman with a soft voice answered, but it was not his daughter. "Carolina Ramirez Vocal Instruction, can I help you?" His eyes started to widen and he stumbled over his shock.

"I-I'm sorry, I was expecting to reach my daughter. She left your phone number beside her bed. Katrina Vega? I'm her father, David Vega."

"Oh yes." He was relieved by the woman's knowledge of his child, but that relief did not last long. "She's been one of my best students for the past three years now, you should be proud of her."

How had he missed this? His entire world began to fade as he tried in desperation to understand. "Proud? I didn't know she was taking voice lessons…" He heard the woman mutter something in Spanish and aggravation set in quickly as he was the parent that had the Spanish background. "Hey, I do pay attention to-" His eyebrows meshed together and his voice faltered as his breath strangled him. He cleared away the heavy force in his throat. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't snap. Do you know where Trina's gone?"

"Yes sir. Last month she started to volunteer at the Los Angeles Humane Society and Kennel, a month ago she was approached there by a cousin of mine that had been visiting from Spain and was letting his dog stay there. After I told him of all my students, he requested to hear them and chose her to sign a recording contract with."

"What?" All of a sudden the wind had been knocked out of him. From what he was hearing, his daughter either had left or was leaving for Spain. "S-She didn't tell me."

"She told me she tried to. I imagine you were all worked up about your other child's performance in hopes that a record producer would shine some grace on her?" He was insulted by the woman's spiteful tone, but the offense didn't linger in him as he agreed with her. This was only another attempt from Tori, who never took a single voice lesson in her life. She only sang through luck. "She let her teachers know. If you wish to see her, your daughter's plane leaves in an hour to Madrid."

"An hour?" It took thirty minutes just to get to the airport. Trina would have had to leave before anyone noticed. "Why wouldn't she tell me? I'm her father."

"Pero un padre ignorante." He reclined in his chair and narrowed his eyes, but the anger would not come. "One of my students has come in, I must go. AdiósSeñor Vega."

The deafening click sounded off in his ear and he continued to hold the phone up as if it would connect to his oldest. He tried to visualize the reason she wouldn't have told him about the move, about taking lessons at her college, or even about volunteering at the humane society.

When he looked back to the passenger seat, his lips curved into a gentle smile as a young girl with an oversized police cap appeared. The child laughed as the brim of the hat fell in front of her eyes. A tear fell from his face as the apparition vanished away.

He slowly closed his eyes, contemplating Trina in his mind. Always he'd been proud of her growing up. What reason had he ever given her to think otherwise?

Visions of himself began to appear, speaking familiar lines that he'd thought so little about. "You're going far away when you go to college right?" A cold chill ran down his spine. His fingers reached for the keys and froze above them. "Maybe we should just leave her in the prison there." It was meant as a joke when his daughters and friends had been stuck in a foreign country, but he never took into account the injured expression on Trina's face. After that, she'd begun acting differently. Coming to him less, not spending any more time with him, he thought she was going through a phase and would grow out of it.

Opening his eyes he saw a vision of his daughter standing before the couch where Robbie, Andre and Beck were hiding. She was accusing them of messing with her, and he was siding with them.

As it faded away, the vision in front of his car left in place a little girl holding up a small, round pinecone. "Look what I found, daddy! Can we put it with the others?"

His fingers moved back to his face, sliding over his eyes as his body begun to shake. A deep feeling of regret filled the dead space within his chest and he slowly pulled his hand away to start the car.

He'd receive hell, but if he left now he could still catch Trina before her flight-even though it meant missing out on Tori's performance. As proud of Tori that he was, he needed to let Trina know he was proud of her too.

Never before did David think he needed to tell her how proud he was, he thought it was one of those unspoken things. She'd accomplished so much in her lifetime and she was his little girl.

She would always be his little girl.

When he arrived at the airport, he had to turn off his phone because of the constant ringing. Holly and Tori were upset that he and Trina hadn't shown up yet. Getting through the lines at the airport took another twenty minutes, and then figuring out what plane was heading to Madrid made things more stressful.

By the time he found her, she was getting ready to board. He saw her sitting in a metal chair, wearing a long black and red dress with gold embroidery at the bottom. Her hair fell in neat wavy curls over her shoulders and her somber eyes studied the contents of her purse as she rummaged through it for what was likely her plane ticket.

Trina stood up and David hurried for her, his heart racing a mile a minute as a song that played on the radio while he drove burned into his mind. It had been that song from Lindsay Lohan to her father, which startled him but made his desire to see Trina grow that much stronger.

"Trina, wait!"

She froze and slowly turned her head over her shoulder. Her eyebrows moved inwards and she pulled her purse strap further up on her shoulder. "Dad? Shouldn't you be at Tori's performance right now?"

"Tori will have a million chances to perform, but-"

"I'm moving to Spain, Dad." Her voice was terse and her body tense. "If you're going to try to stop me…"

"No, I won't." He watched as her lips pulled back into her cheeks and his heart sank when he gazed back into her soft brown eyes.

"Then why are you here?" It was clear she didn't expect anyone to find or call her instructor until after she was gone. This was the perfect time for her to leave, when everyone would be with Tori.

His eyes grew misty and his hands started to tremble at his sides. "Because." His voice cracked as he thought of her boarding that plane alone, moving on to live her life and growing into a woman. "You're my little girl. You're growing into a woman, but you'll always be my little girl…I want you to know that before you go, Trina. I want you to know that your father does love you, I've always been proud of it."

Trina looked over her shoulder and back to him with some impatience. "You have a funny way of showing it, Dad."

"I never thought it was necessary." He set his hand on her shoulder and gazed into her eyes, praying she could see the love he had for her.

"Was it so hard for you? All you had to do was pay attention, at least once tell me you were proud of me. At least once see me for who I was." She lifted her shoulders and spread her arms out to the side. "You never did. Tori always took precedence. You lost me."

"Tori never was more important." He moved his hand to his chest, feeling as his heart entered into his palm in rapid beats beneath his skin. "I've always been proud of you. I've always seen your accomplishments. How well you've done in martial arts, how much you loved going down to the police department and learning everything you could…" A smile appeared on her face, but quickly disappeared as a crease took its place on her forehead. "You've always done the best you could, Trina, and I've always been proudest of you. I would have been so happy to hear you were taking voice lessons, happy to hear you'd volunteered at that animal shelter and even that a record producer chose you out of the students in that class…"

"Maybe."

"All I ask is that you don't board that plane hating me and thinking that I don't care."

He heard the flight attendant call out that the plane was boarding and it was the final call for passengers. His heart sank as Trina gave him one final look. Her face tensed around her eyes and her lips separated for a second. "You're my dad. I'll never hate you." She pushed her fingers through her hair and then reached out to pat his upper arm. "I don't know what's in Spain, and I'll be honest it's kind of scary. I don't even know if I'll be successful or not, but I'll go over with something you've always tried to teach me."

"What?"

"To try my best at everything." She took a deep breath. "Things don't come easy to me like they do Tori, I've never been able to just pick something up and be perfect at it, but that only taught me to keep trying. She could ride a bike on her first try, I got it on the third. So what? It's my turn now, isn't it?" Her words broke him and tears surfaced from the corners of his eyes as she reached into her purse and pulled out a CD inside a blank case. He never required her to be perfect, he never asked for it. "I want you to listen to this. It's my rendition of some songs. If you want to hear my 'accomplishments', then you can listen to this. Goodbye Dad, tell mom and Tori that I love them."

"Will you call when you land?"

"Honestly?" She took a step back and turned away. "Probably not right away."

"I understand." He watched her walk away and felt his heart crumble into several pieces. His lips curved into a proud smile as tears ran over them. "I love you sweetheart."

On the car ride home, he listened to his daughter sing _Unseen_, by Katie Armiger. His fingers trembled on the steering wheel and forced him to pull over to the side as he broke into a uncontrollable sob.

His baby girl was a woman now, facing an unknown world all by herself with a bravado that she must have derived from somewhere. It was slowly sinking in, the painful realization that his child no longer needed her daddy there to hold her hand. He'd missed out on an opportunity to say what he needed to say long ago.

Never had he meant to make her feel as if he didn't care, and now he wondered if he had truly been too late. Would she have chosen to stay if he'd only given her more acknowledgement? It was unlikely, but he would have supported her as he did now, and maybe her leaving would have been different.

All he could do was pray for his little girl to become the best she could be in life, and while he knew she'd be a success no matter what she did, he would pray for her. Then maybe one day she would return to them, and the love he had for his daughter would still remain.

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I think I did well description wise, and I hope you enjoyed it. I think what's important to focus on here is the key meaning of the story, the moral. Always say what needs to be said before you can no longer have that chance.


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